NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine’s 100% FOOTY every Monday night of the NRL season, debating rugby league’s hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in tonight at 9.45pm (AEST) following a bumper round 20!
The best thing about the closing rounds of this NRL season is no one knows what’s going to happen. I am loving it.
How long has it been since the competition has been this open? Yes, the Panthers, Broncos and Warriors look to have their spots in the top four locked away but from the Storm in fourth all the way down to the Roosters in 12th, there’s nothing predictable about how the top eight will settle.
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Last year we knew the competition was over 10 rounds into it. Penrith were so far in front it wasn’t funny. They won the minor premiership by six points and rested players in the last four weeks of the competition, so it was over last year.
This year everything is set up for a thrilling finale and a lot of the teams fighting for a place in the finals play each other in the last four rounds.
For me, outside the Panthers, Broncos and Warriors there are a couple of standouts who can make a run deep into September if they get healthy and survive the next month.
The Cowboys are a very dangerous side but the big ‘if’ is the injuries to key players like Jeremiah Nanai. They need everyone fit and firing to compete with the likes of the Panthers and the Broncos and they seem to have run out of luck from that point-of-view.
It’s a similar story for Souths. If the Rabbitohs are at full strength they can compete with the top sides but they’ve got to be full strength. At the moment they’re sitting in eighth spot and their forward pack has been ravaged by injuries so unless they can get healthy it’s hard to make a case for them.
The Storm are sitting fourth and we’ve seen signs from them this season that they can contend but you’ve got to say they were disappointing against the Panthers on Friday night. Jahrome Hughes is very important to them, so him being out against the Panthers was critical. We also saw some uncharacteristic performances from senior players, with poor errors from Nelson Asofa-Solomona and one from Christian Welch as well. You don’t see the Storm let down by senior players too often, so I would expect them to bounce back hard over the next few weeks.
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My old team Cronulla have looked shaky in recent weeks but they were excellent against the Rabbitohs and I still believe that if they can put together their best football when it matters most they have the qualities to shake things up in September.
South Sydney are the team that are getting a lot of heat at the moment and that’s because we saw earlier in the season how good they can be.
Latrell Mitchell is an absolute freak. He may not have been at his damaging best against the Sharks but take him out of the side against the Tigers last week and they might have lost that game too. I think you need to give Cronulla credit for what they did against the Rabbitohs. Yes, Cody Walker and Latrell were quiet but they were shut down by their opponents and sometimes it’s just not your day.
If you want to be critical of the Rabbitohs I think the place to start is the middle of the field where they’ve had a pretty difficult run with injuries. Hame Sele wouldn’t normally be a starting front-rower for them, nor would Jai Arrow, but they’ve had to change things around because the likes of Tevita Tatola is out injured. Now Tom Burgess is set to spend a few weeks on the sidelines suspended, so the classy playmakers are facing a period where they’re probably going to have to win games off the back foot.
I look at all teams, and we talk about Penrith and we marvel at Penrith and how good they are, we talk about To’o and Cleary and Luai and Edwards but it comes down to the middle, I don’t care what anyone says. We talk about their defence and why it’s so good, it’s because their line never stops moving. It’s because their middles keep moving, their middles keep tidying things up on the inside and never leave any space on the inside, so the outside backs have the confidence to move and to spread out wide.
And I think any side that’s doing good at the moment has great middles. Look at the Brisbane Broncos, they’ve got Payne Haas, Pat Carrigan and Tom Flegler – they’re great players. It’s the old saying in rugby league, the forwards win the matches, the backs decide by how many. I think that’s been pretty evident for Souths, they’ve had some injuries in the middle of the field, Burgess has copped a ban and that’s always going to make it hard to win the battle of the middle of the field.
As I’ve touched on, they’re still in the race for the eight, so they need to find something to get them to the finish line and if they squeeze into finals no one will want to play them.
Bring on the last four rounds!
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